Real Men does not read manuals. They'd rather get eaten by chryssalids.

Not hard to do considering physical game manuals these days generally consist of a slip of paper containing health warnings and a concise guide on how to put the disc into the drive and run the install program (where applicable).

 

- NKF

End turn keyboard shortcut is Backspace if you like using the keyboard like me.

 

But yeah, I feel for you man. I had a similar problem of capturing live aliens after upgrading my Assaults to Close Combat Specialist. They would always take down the poor sod after I so carefully took it down to 2-3HP on its turn when it moved. This was especially annoying since I assigned the Arc Thrower to my Assaults.

 

Had a similar problem with Close Combat Specialist. Decided to upgrade my Assaults to Ghost Armor and park them next to the 2 Elite Mutons and Ethereal. Next turn one Muton moves, triggers CCS, Assault shoots and reveals itself.

Interesting thing with Assaults and CCS (Card Captor Sakura? =): if you station two of them on either side of a small door, and an alien triggers CCS, the two Assaults step into the gap and "merge" into one, and their animations are perfectly in sync. Quite amusing to watching "one person" reload the shotgun and "unfuse" into two people at the end.

That is my wish with overwatch too, to make such actions queued and not simultaneous. I just facepalm when 5 soldiers fire on same alien because of overwatch.

Compound it with two or more snipers with squad sight on overwatch. Not only do all the forward soldiers open fire on an oncoming enemy, but all the snipers will as well. Six enemies would've shown up but all your firepower is wasted on just one. Frequently it'll be something like a drone.

 

I'm starting to see the appeal of taking snapshot to make a mid-range secondary sniper.

 

- NKF

Snapshot is pretty cool paired with damn good ground, but I still prefer squadsight.

 

Simultaneous firing is a waste of firepower, but having the damage spread "just right" would give overwatch a big advantage over normal attack and turtling would be a major tactical choice, which is bad.

That is why I use 1 sniper and considering eliminating sniper at all (except some cases).

I too use one sniper. Upgraded heavies can deliver a much bigger tactical footprint (read: devastation with AOE). I was experimenting with two supports and they do well enough with plasmas in their hands and a long move. I have a hard time switching the Arc Thrower to them but assaults seem better suited with additional armour to dash in and do havoc. I can definitely see why Run'n'Gun ability is not able to be paired with using equipment, it would be hugely overpowered.

Snapshot is pretty cool paired with damn good ground, but I still prefer squadsight.

 

Simultaneous firing is a waste of firepower, but having the damage spread "just right" would give overwatch a big advantage over normal attack and turtling would be a major tactical choice, which is bad.

 

You can have damage spread if you can position your soldiers correctly so that they fire each after the other instead of all at the same time. However, it depends on available cover, type/number of aliens, etc. Don't use this against Mutons - you'll risk them using Scout and Sniping at your lead soldier though after he spent his Overwatch shooting at the Bezerker.

Paired snipers and a heavy have been my answer to dealing with the Sectopods after that first supply ship I played. The heavy to soften it up and wipe out the pesky drones in a single shot, and the snipers to finish it off. Of course, now that both of them have lasted long enough to get double tap, they've become a bit frightening. Still, to keep the casualties down when fighting these things, it's worth putting up with the wasted reaction fire.

 

- NKF

Assault with lightning reflexes laughs at its reaction fire

Assault with lightning reflexes laughs at its reaction fire

 

2 of them with Alloy Cannons and the Sectopod is a dead toaster. I love getting right next to the thing with Ghost Armor and blast it away before it even shoots.

Very true. For tough targets you need a firing line. While I played on classic overwatch wa very rarely wasted after muttons came to the scene. I started a new game on normal and it almost feels too easy, but I'll reserve higher difficulties for after I at least finish the game once.

 

BTW, does anyone know if events like alien base attack act as difficulty triggers or is time the only factor?

The only significant change I noticed after the alien base was that it introduced Sectoid Commanders in place of the Outsiders. I think after some time, or some research, a battleship showed with an Ethereal at the helm. After that, the slots normally reserved for Outsiders seemed to have been taken over by an Ethereal + Muton Elite.

 

I'm not sure if I'm getting clipping errors, but my soldiers seem to lose their hair when they are killed and glam-cam'd. X-Com combat wigs? Not so rocking I guess.

 

-NKF

The change of difficulty comes with time and how badly you are doing. If you lose many countries on the first few months you could get battleship on 3rd month. A friend of my friend lost that way.

The change of difficulty comes with time and how badly you are doing. If you lose many countries on the first few months you could get battleship on 3rd month. A friend of my friend lost that way.

 

Interesting, and perhaps somewhat realistic... It is somewhat frustrating that when you're doing bad, the game hits you even harder. I hope these are the only triggers as I'd hate to see that delaying a certain research would be a viable strategy. The base attack is already such a thing as you'd best do it when the global situation is dire. In the recent game I used it when I was facing a possible loss of four countries. Base and global peace. You're not rewarded to have done it sooner, you can use it as a strategic element. Just like the satellites and the launch just before the end of the month.

The cycle which is catching me out at the moment is running out of alloys but then not bring able to shoot down UFOs to get more. Annoying to put it mildly.

My missus is watching the final episode of "The Restaurant" reality show... She's been watching the whole show like mad, giving me time to play XCOM. Anyway, jokingly I asked her if I can change the channel. Now I know what it is like to look at the Sectopod while it fires on you.

You sure that was Sectopod and not Etheral?

Good point... The look might have had the destructive potential of both really.

Or the grumpy and often nagging mother-in-law. Has all the effects the ethereal can do and more. Your head explodes when you lose an argument, or you turn on your loved ones. And when you do have some clever repartee, it tends to just bounce off her most of the time. Beware!

 

- NKF

That would be Uber Etheral - you can't fiddle with it's mind

That would be Uber Etheral - you can't fiddle with it's mind

 

"That would be Uber Etheral - you can't fiddle with her mind"

 

you had a typo there

Hmm I am pretty sure every one refers to Mother in Law as IT.